Evidence the Knights Templar got to America!

Did the Knights Templar get to America? The idea that the Templars fled to the United States with their treasure has been very appealing. But is there any truth to this story? Let’s investigate!

We begin in the year 1307. It’s 185 years before Christopher Columbus sets foot in Hispaniola, laying claim to the New World on behalf of the kingdom of Spain. For the Templars, 1307 was a very bad year. The King of France, Philip IV, issued arrest warrants for all the Templar knights in his realm. They were accused of heresy and sodomy. When apprehended, the Templars were to be thrown into dungeons, tortured to extract confessions, and then burned to death at the stake – the punishment for heretics.

One Templar who confessed, Jean de Châlons, claimed that the order knew about the arrest warrants before they were served – this was despite the secrecy surrounding the operation. That gave the knights time to pack their treasure, transport it down to the port of La Rochelle, and set sail. But where did they sail to?

DISCOVER: Scotland, the Knights Templar, and the Holy Grail

If we believe they eventually ended up in America – then the first stop was Scotland. From there, they boarded ships with help from a local noble, Earl Sinclair, and made their way across the Atlantic to the New World. So, where’s the evidence that supports this story? Let’s examine how this theory developed.

• In the 16th century, Nicolò Zeno the Younger – a senator in the Republic of Venice (north-east Italy) – wrote a book claiming that his ancestors, Nicolò and Antonio Zeno (brothers), had journeyed across the North Atlantic in the 1380s. The ship in which they travelled was under the command of Prince Zichmni. The book included maps and documents to evidence the veracity of this claim.
• By the 18th century, Venice was asserting that the Zeno brothers had not only got to America but beaten Columbus by over a century. For its part, Spain ignored this boast from the Venetians and carried on ruling their vast empire in central and south America.
• In 1784, John Reinhold Forster wrote that the man called Prince Zichmni was none other than Henry Sinclair, Earl of Orkney, and Lord of Roslin (another spelling for Rosslyn – as in the chapel). He was the grandfather of the Sinclair who built Rosslyn chapel – made famous by Dan Brown’s novel, The Da Vinci Code. Sinclair had helped the Templars get to America. Forster was a pastor and scientist who accompanied the English explorer Captain James Cook on a voyage to circumnavigate the world as far south as possible to map any land discovered.
• Throughout the 19th and 20th centuries, writers and commentators have either supported or debunked claims that Sinclair led a successful expedition to America on a ship that included Templar knights who were fugitives from French justice.
• Once in the New World, Sinclair and the Templars made contact with the local Mi’kmaq native Americans – who came to worship Sinclair as the god Glooscap.

If the Knights Templar took their treasure to America – then what did they do with it? One theory that has proved spectacularly popular is that the Templars put their gold, silver, and other precious items into something termed the ‘money pit’ on Oak Island, in Nova Scotia. Finding this treasure has been the subject of a long running TV documentary series on History: The Curse of Oak Island. I must declare an interest here that I have appeared as a regular on-screen guest on its sister show: Tales from Oak Island.

The counter-argument from sceptics is that all of the above rests on a confession from a Templar knight extracted under torture and a book from a Venetian senator, regarded by mainstream historians as a self-glorifying forgery.

Other evidence advanced for the Knights Templar being in America are two physical phenomena:

• The Newport Tower – a Newport, Rhode Island, there is a 17th century windmill. Or is it? Some local historians have argued that it’s the remains of a Templar fortification or church – as the knights often built circular chapels.
• The Westford Knight – this is a carving on a glacial boulder in Massachusetts. The carving is of a figure that is interpreted as a medieval knight, with a sword and shield – though this identification only seems to date from the 1950s. Back in the 1870s, it was thought to be a native American. Sceptics believe there is no image at all but a trick of the eye.

FIND OUT MORE: Did the Knights Templar take the Holy Grail to America?

If you would like to know more about the Knights Templar, then get your hands on a copy of my book: The Knights Templar – History & Mystery. Published by Pen & Sword and available on Amazon, Waterstones, Barnes & Noble, and WHSmith. Don’t miss out on your copy!